1942 Nazi sabotage hoax – career criminal Sydney Ross met the minister of national service, Robert Semple, in Wellington and claimed he had been approached by a German agent to join a sabotage cell and that Nazi agents had landed by submarine and were living at Ngongotaha, Rotorua. Ross was taken to see Prime Minister Peter Fraser, who referred the matter to Major Kenneth Folkes, a British intelligence officer brought to New Zealand to set up the Security Intelligence Bureau.

1942 The Bombing of Lübeck was the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.

1930 Floods ransacked Languedoc and the surrounding area in south-west France, resulting in twelve départements being submerged by water and causing the death of over 700 people.

1931 The British Viceroy of India, Governor-General Edward Frederick Lindley Wood and Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) met to sign an agreement envisaging the release of political prisoners and allowing salt to be freely used by the poorest members of the population.

1933 Frances Perkins became United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.

1933 – The Parliament of Austria was suspended because of a quibble over procedure – Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiated authoritarian rule by decree.

2002 Canada bans human embryo cloning but permits government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.

2002 Multinational Force in Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.

2005 The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena was fired on by US soldiers after it ran a roadblock in Iraq, causing the death of an Italian Secret Service Agent and injuring two passengers.

2007 Approximately 30,000 voters took advantage of electronic voting in Estonia, the world’s first nationwide voting where part of the votecasting is allowed in the form of remote electronic voting via the Internet.